The Elegance of Nature

Imagine the mama loon with her baby on her back -

                                       swimming in calm waters with other creatures of nature.

Ann N spent time researching and sketching various sizes of loons.

Using a lot of broken pottery that she has made in the past,

Ann made this beautiful loon:

 

We want her to be in our mosaic with the cat tails.

AND we want the cat tails to be recognizable.

First to audition for the part were the Arizona beads.

They could have worked but then we found something else to work with the beads.

It's Sandra T's mom's polished stones.

Below is the final result. Stones, tile and beads won out.

And look! There's the loon with her baby!!!

I'll show you the rest when the water gets put in.

We do spend time thinking out our plan.

These cat tails and weeds were a brainstorm beginning with Ann's brain.

Together, we drew out the marsh fauna on the sides of the box water panels.

  Some of us work with our tongue sticking out.

Gladys is no exception.

Here she is helping her human companion Sarah put artistic touches to her wave.Sarah put an Arizona Bead fish in her wave.

Ann is putting in a little school of fish.

Of course!

Fish and water. They go together.

Pamela is moving along with her beautiful wave.

It's so nice when folks come in to work...

...even if they can't come very often or stay too long.

A little at a time and "Wah-Lah" - you have a piece of art!

Another wave panel done by Sarah.

She is truly a pro;

she can fit those tiles in beautifully and her waves are gorgeous.

We even had a brief visit from Sarah's friend Lori.

We love appreciators any time we can get them.

It was a good two days in the Mosaic Studio.

Dogs and Workers and Guests! Oh my!

Snowball came for a visit today! He is adorable and well mannered.

Ann N. has trained him well and he's soooo cute!

His tail never stops fanning the air - thus a blurred photo of the "Happy Ending".

 

 Not to be absent and upstaged, Gladys (Sarah's dog) became a reality in tile.

This turned out to be a wonderful image of Gladys.

She's lovely. Nice job, Sarah.

Sorry, but you'll have to tip your head on this one.

She jumped just as the picture was taken.

Sarah finished another wave.

She included some fish by anonymous (until someone owns them) 

and a turtle by Frankie.

Oh wait! I think I made the fish. Must have been dreaming.

Here's a closer look.

7 year old Frankie (our granddaughter) was in the mosaic studio on Saturday

when I took some family members on a short tour of our work.

Frankie got the Arizona beads out and made this turtle in about five minutes.

She's "cute, smart and advanced for her age"

 to quote a cousin of Rob's when our first borns were infants.

Nice turtle Miss Francesca.

 

 Ann N put a few leaves onto Tessla's (Margaret's granddaughter)
berry branch to finish it off. Beautiful. Looks almost good enough to eat!

 

Always a pleasure to have visitors.

And sometimes those visitors sit down and have a try at the project. Yay!

Below are Margaret, Helen, Ann N, Sue and Sarah W.



 

Arlene chats with Cori while others continue their art work.

It was a good two days in the Mosaic Studio.

 

 

 

I suppose you were wondering.......

I suppose you were wondering how this all gets done.

First you have to measure the area to receive the mosaic.

Pastor Luisa Cabello graciously did this task for us. 

Then draw out the blank areas onto paper (we used paper tablecloth) 

and tape them up to the wall.

Then the design is penciled in.

When you are satisfied with your design, the lines are darkened with magic marker.

 

The next step is to determine where the breaks will be

to make the piece more manageable to work with..

Those pieces are attached to cardboard backing.

Plastic goes over the design and then a mesh to glue the tiles on to.

This part takes longer than you might think...

......all that cutting and cutting and taping and taping and taping.

Ugh. Not my favorite part.

Larger areas must be divided into more sections for easier installation.

The piece above will go at the back of the "box" below.

Bob the Builder will also have a red winged blackbird

and a loon to accompany him in this design.

And that's your mosaic lesson for today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gladys Graced our Studio!

Sarah's dog Gladys came for a visit Wednesday.

She is a very good visitor and minds her mistress.

Gladys enjoys a little scratching under her chin -

and on her head -

and of course loves to be petted.

She's such a good dog and has visited us so many times that

it was decided she should represent the canine population in our mosaic.

Here's a possibility - Gladys curled up and sleeping quietly.

Can you see her?!!! Hint: She has a Lady Bug nose.

 We have a few extra fish to incorporate into the waters....
.....and by golly, we've got a MERMAID (made by Cepeda E.).
AND she has a treasure chest with precious gems below the water.

Here's a closer look:

  Jane has finished her panel of water
and has incorporated a fish of polished rocks made by Ann N
with the rocks from Sandra T's mom's collection.
Lucky us.

  Cori has invited Sarah's fish to swim in her water panel.

That little fishy must like the exotic purple water.

Sarah nestled my koi fish in a wave.

Isn't that fish clever? She can swim UP!

(either that or I couldn't get the photo to turn after many different tries!)

It was a good Tuesday and Wednesday in the Mosaic Studio.

 

A Little Creative Machine

I've been under the weather and unable to come into the mosaic studio this week.

But others have moved on like a little creative machine.

Helen and Cori worked on Tuesday and finished this beautiful wave.

Helen was kind enough to take the photo and send it to me.

 

Don't even know if anyone came in on Wednesday....

I've lost control!  

Naaahhhhh. Never had control.

This wonderful mosaic team is right on target with our creations.

You too, could be enjoying the camaraderie. C'mon in!

 

We're almost half done!

There are still some waves and flower gardens to make

and probably some marsh weeds as well.

I'm thinking egret. We'll see.

Open House!!!

We've been working on the mosaic project since January of this year.

The results are in; it's beautiful!

We want you to be able to get a little preview of lovely things to come

so we're having a little

 Open House this Easter Sunday

before and after the 11:00 service

Come and take a look.

The finished and almost finished panels are displayed on tables

in the Caterpillar Room across from the Bartch Room inside the side door.

 

Here's what you'll see first:

 

These are end panels

where the sides of the trough step down

A close-up of Ann's panel.

Ann used a lot of the Mount Lemmon beads in this one with amazing results.

 

Linda is enjoying making the waters flow.

Many flowers made by the children

will be in the Children's Flower Garden

Some of today's workers were on school break.

This is Margaret's grandson, Camron

and granddaughter Tessla.

Watch for Tessla's berries on a vine. Camron put his special mark on a wave so he will be able to identify which one he did.

 

 And these are three of our seven grands: Cepeda, Isabel and Francesca.

It was a good day in the mosaic studio.

.